is it fear or attraction? (big dumb object) it’s actually really hard to evoke artificially. there’s a lot of not that good paintings
optimality is a construct, a teleological one (AH110).
also I was reading a fiction today and this part spoke to me:
(translating Olga Tokarczuk) “plants don’t know geometry. they at most mimic geometric shapes. in this unconscious mimicry, often the density and symmetry turn into thick, asymmetric, scar. that’s what humans call ‘imperfect’. how would plants know what is perfect and what is imperfect? how would they know there exists perfect things in this world?”
(translating Olga Tokarczuk) “If I wasn’t a human I would be a mushroom. I would be a cold, cruel mushroom, with cold and smooth skin that’s hard and tender. I would grow eerily, strangely on tumbled trees, always soundless. I would use stretched out toe tips to such the remaining sunlight from the tree’s insides. I would grow on things that died. I would stab through this death into the pristine soil — my mycelium would stay there. I would be smaller than trees and shrubs, but I will grow at places higher than the berry bushes. I am not permanent, I am temporary, but as a human, am I not also impermanent and temporary? I would not be interested in the sun, my eyes would no longer search for sun, I would never wait for the sun to come out. All I think about is the moisture, I will rise to welcome mist and rain, I would let humid air condensate into dews on my body. I would not discern night and day, for why would I need to?”
I realised from reading Olga that a story can be very short, and very not tragic/profound. Let me write a small story about B, who is also 50% me just like A is 50% me.